>This is meant in no way as disrespect - I like everyone else here am
>drooling at new TV B5 content. My question is - how has your vision changed
>over the intervening years?

You only get pertinent information by asking impertinent questions, so don't
worry about it.

There are a couple of factors in the questions you ask. First and foremost, my
comments about getting the heck out came at a time when I was emotionally,
physically and psychologically exhausted by the demands of telling this
particular story. People who know me, know what it did to me.

(Emblematic of the toll it was taking...it's pro forma to insure actors at the
beginning of each season so that if they are injured or killed or otherwise
incapacitated, the show is insured against that loss. Production staff --
writers, producers, others -- are almost never similarly insured. But after
season 2, seeing what it was costing to get this show made, the powers that be
insisted that I be insured, so that if I collapsed or dropped dead the show
would be insured. I'm always reticent to talk about that kind of thing,
because it seems really indulgent, but that's the truth of it.)

I've had a bit of time to catch my breath since then -- though none of my hair
has grown back -- so I think I'm in the biz for a bit longer. I figure I've
got another couple of shows in me...but I can't let any of them be as dramatic
an effect on my life again, it's just too debilitating.

The other factor in all this is that, in doing 5 years of B5 and one of
Crusade, I became very attached to this universe. I like visiting it. Even
when I'm not working in it, the characters are there, in my head. So there's
the lure of kind of going home again.


jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)